Graham Cracker & Brown Sugar Custom Oatmeal

I was recently contacted by Fit Approach about trying custom oatmeal from My Oatmeal. I've been making granola for breakfast for a few weeks now, and was thrilled at the opportunity.

The process of making your custom oats is really straightforward. You pick your size, choose what kind of oats you want, pick your flavor(s), fruits, nuts, sweeteners and you are good to go! I kept mine really simple by choosing regular oatmeal with graham cracker and brown sugar flavoring and brown sugar to sweeten it up. I was really surprised at how many healthy oatmeal options they offered. The number of combos you could create are nearly limitless.

Instead of just making oatmeal, I decided to turn my custom oatmeal into granola. Here's the recipe with photos:

Graham Cracker & Brown Sugar Granola

3 cups graham cracker & brown sugar custom rolled oats

3 tablespoons packed brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Mix oats, brown sugar, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together honey, melted butter and vanilla. Pour liquid mixture over the dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly coated.

Spread evenly over a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. After the first 15 minutes, stir the mixture and add an additional 5-15 minutes to the baking time. Bake until golden.

Place cookie sheet on a wire rack to cool. Add in chopped nuts (or other stir in items) and stir to combine. Stir the granola every few minutes as it cools to keep it from sticking to your cookie sheet.

Once the granola has completely cooled, store in an airtight container. It should keep for about 2 weeks.

There were more clusters in the batch, but I couldn't keep my hands off of the cookie sheet while they were cooling. I have a serious granola addiction.

I was really pleased with how this recipe turned out. The idea of adding flavoring to my oats made me think of all the awful artificial flavoring I have encountered in so-called healthy foods. This was not the case with my custom oatmeal. It smelled and tasted exactly as if I had crushed up graham crackers in my oats. I don't see this batch lasting through the week!